Screen
by SakuraTenshi36092
Summary: Even the valiant Boy Wonder has his fears, but what happens when they start to become reality? Three short unconnected drabbles for ChuChuMarshmallow's 1 Word Genre Challenge.
1. Waiting

**Hurt/Comfort – "Screen"**

Dick held his breath. He waited, as the seconds dragged on, turning into minutes, hours, but he didn't move from his place.

Bruce's chair was comfy, he wouldn't have wanted to move anyway, but now he _had_ to stay by the BatComputer, as he had dubbed it many years ago.

So he waited.

He knew he could re-route any signals so that they'd be intercepted before they reached it and transferred to his glove, so he could move, but he didn't. He knew he should've answered Alfred when he came to check up on him. He knew he could call Wally for support, or Roy, or the entire team and the League, but he didn't. He just sat there, eyes glued to the screen, willing it to give him some ethereal sign his partner -his father- was okay.

He would've jumped out of his comfy seat, donned his cape and cowl and been out searching the streets of Gotham within seconds of receiving the message had it not been for both his broken leg and fractured forearm, the result of a fight gone wrong with Two-Face, and Alfred.

Whatever the Joker had planned, he wouldn't actually kill Batman, would he? Wouldn't he miss his nemesis, or something? That didn't mean he wouldn't _hurt_ Batman, though.

Although he was almost positive at least someone in the League heard or seen Joker's message, he wanted to check, to know what was going on, to help if he could.

He finally moved, reaching for the screen's controls, he pulled up a map displaying all of the League and team members' locations. The team were, as expected, all at the mountain, their red dots clustered at Happy Harbor.

Some of the League weren't on the lateral map, probably at the Watchtower, but many were. One or two were in their various cities, but several were in Gotham. Robin sighed in relief as he zoomed in. They were spread out, obviously searching the city, one of the signals was moving much faster than the others, and he knew Flash was here. Another would hover in one place, then shoot to a position a few blocks away and hover there, till it sped to the next one. Robin smiled at Superman's search method: using his x-ray vision would make things a lot easier. The other dots just slowly made their way around Gotham, making them indistinguishable.

Robin frowned, frustrated, as he watched. The Leaguers were looking in all the wrong places! They didn't know Gotham like Batman and Robin did, and they were wasting time.

He stared at the screen, desperately willing the dots to converge and find Batman, when a voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"Master Richard, are you alright?" Dick turned his head slightly to Alfred standing with a tray full of cookies, presumably for him.

"He- I- They- They're doing it all wrong!" Dick spluttered angrily, gesturing at the Dots on the screen, "Batman's in trouble and they're wasting time looking in the stupidest places! They're meant to save him, not leave him with- with-" Hot, angry tears threatened to spill over and Robin buried his face in his hands.

"It's my fault: if I hadn't been so stupid last night I'd be out there with him and Joker wouldn't have him."

Alfred, cookies aside, enveloped the boy in a hug he so desperately needed right now.

"Master Dick, you shouldn't blame yourself. Had you been with him, I believe he would've spent more time worrying about you than concentrating on the task at hand. Master Clark and the others will find him, no matter how long it takes, he'll be alright."

Dick nodded slowly, still in Alfred's embrace. The butler and the boy sat for a while like that, the screen staring blankly back at them, taunting them with the scattered dots.

Then they waited, eyes glued to the screen, staring at the red dots that were moving like a colony of ants around Gotham. They waited, for the League, for Joker, for Batman. They waited for a sign, for _anything_, to appear on that screen.

* * *

**(A/N) I recently went on a challenge spree after discovering the forum, so this is the first of many drabbles to come (hopefully), and writing this has been really fun!**

**For anyone who's reading my other story, Hidden Angel, I'm really sorry about my lack of updates, but I was stuck for ideas for AGES, but the next five chapters are in the works.**

**Review please!**

**~SakuraTenshi~**


	2. Mask

**"Screen" - Mask**

You know,

I can see

Right through

Your mask

To your eyes.

Blue

Like the ocean,

But muffled

By your lies.

You pretend

At school;

"Just being friendly to the new girl,"

You say

To your friend.

Do you lie

To her

Too?

Do you

Throw up the

Barriers

Walls

Screens

When you talk

And she gets

Too close?

The false smiles,

The half answers,

The constant dancing round the truth.

It hurts

To know

You don't trust us

Like you should.

That you'd tell one

Against orders,

Break the rules,

But not for all.

We're a team.

We're friends.

We're family.

There should be no secrets,

Right?

So why,

When we all tell you ours,

You say nothing of yours?

You smile instead,

Offer support,

Say you knew all along,

Say it doesn't matter,

Say it doesn't change who we are.

I smile too.

It makes me happy

To know

You won't push us away

For what isn't

Our fault.

But then I think

And I see

The screen

Between you and us.

The lens

We have to

See you through.

The partition.

The divide.

The gap.

You've been distanced

By the Bat.

By yourself.

But you

Broke the rules

For one

But not

For us few.

We tell

Of the ties

That bind us,

But you stay silent

Pulling strings.

You must hope,

Sometimes,

That he'll let you share

So you can talk

To us

With us

About stuff.

Little things,

Like school

With me,

Like problems

With you,

And your life.

It must be hard

Sometimes

To stop,

Not to slip,

Or tread

On thin ice.

We all know

That circus

Was special.

The mission

Was cruel

To you.

You tried

And told us

To keep

An open mind;

You didn't want

The circus

To close

But why?

Happy memories

Can be precious.

Maybe

You have some

With them?

Please,

Tell us

We can keep

Secrets.

We have kept

Secrets.

We all want

To know

What troubles you

Without you

Having to stop

And cover up.

We know

A little

But we want you

To say

It.

To show

That you

Trust us.

There is no mole

It's been proved

Again,

And again.

Please

Bring down

The barriers,

The walls.

Tell us

We'll listen.

Tell us

So we can

Stop

Looking at you

Through this stupid

Screen.

* * *

**(A/N) Decided I'd try my hand at writing some poetry and found that I enjoyed writing like this quite a bit, despite the difference to how I usually write things. Problem is, now I'm having issues with writing normal sentences... yay.**

**I should probably point out that these three drabbles are completely unconnected, so this wasn't in any way a continuation of the first chapter. Now that I think about it, it probably would've ben better for me to post these three as separate Fics, so sorry for any confusion caused.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added 'Screen' to their alerts/ favorites.**

**Please review!**

**~SakuraTenshi~**


	3. Isolation

**"Screen" - Isolation**

"Uh, Roy?"

The archer looked up at the cal of his name, removing his head from his hands; where he'd been holding it for the previous half hour or so. The bird stood before him somewhat awkwardly, his hands stuffed in his jean pockets and shuffling his feet nervously.

"You okay?" Robin sounded concerned, worried even, about him. Roy looked into the Boy Wonder's eyes –sunglasses- but turned away again.

"I'm not Roy."

Robin seemed disheartened for a second, but quickly regained his calm demeanour and walked so that he was in front of him. His hands left his pockets and one came to rest on the archer's shoulder in an attempt at a comforting gesture.

"You may not be Speedy, but you're still Roy."

He didn't look up, and Robin sighed.

"You can't screen yourself off from me Roy; trust me, it won't help you at all."

"How can you talk to me? Even stand to be in the same room as me? Aren't you angry?" Roy looked up now, his voice dropping into a hollow whisper, "I _betrayed _you; I was the mole. How do you not hate me?"

Robin's gaze softened, "I don't hate you. It wasn't your fault and you're not the mole anymore; Cadmus' programming has been wiped from your mind and you have a new life now. Yes, you may not be who you thought you were, but I still think you're my big brother, and so does Wally."

Roy gaped at the Boy Wonder; he hadn't been expecting forgiveness from anyone for his actions. Sympathy and pity for his situation perhaps, but not forgiveness. He searched Robin's face for any signs of lingering resentment, but found none.

"But I-"

"No," Robin's face hardened for a fraction of a second, but any traces of a frown were replaced instantly by a genuine smile, "I don't care what you think about yourself but we still consider you family. There's still a place for you with the Team if you're not going to stay in the League, but don't you **ever **think you're not our friend."

The Boy Wonder's paused, thinking something over, and seemed to come to a decision. He scanned the room before continuing.

"I also don't care what Batman and the rest of the League say, but we've all agreed on this."

Roy's eyebrows twitched into a frown: agreed on what?

Robin calmed slightly, "You've had all your secrets pulled out into the open, even ones you didn't know you had, so it might make you feel better to know you weren't the only one with secrets."

Roy's eyes widened.

"Wait, are you going to-" Robin cut him off again with a large intake of breath.

"Superboy's dad is Lex Luthor, Miss Martian's a white Martian, Artemis' family consists of ex-cons and still active criminals, and I," Robin reached for his shades and pulled them off as Roy held his breath, "Am Richard Grayson; ex-circus performer and ward of Gotham's billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne, but call me Dick, it's what my friends call me."

Roy's expression must've been priceless, because Robin –Dick- (that was going to take some time to get used to), looked like he wanted to laugh with the enormous grin he had on his face.

"Wha- I-" Roy stuttered, "Whoa, does that mean Batman's-"

"Yeah, but you can tell: I haven't told the team yet, except from Wally, but he's known for ages."

Roy was speechless; some small part of him wanted to go _'I knew they couldn't be trusted!', _but the notion was quickly pushed aside by the realisation of the fact that the team, the _entire _team, trusted him.

He would've cried with happiness, but he just wasn't like that, so instead he settled for shutting his mouth, taking the bird's offered hand and standing up.

"Thanks," he said, "You don't know how much this means to me."

Dick just smiled and released his hand.

"It's okay, we know. We just didn't want to lose you. I didn't want to lose my big brother because he thought he wasn't 'a real boy'."

Roy smirked at his little brother and reached over to ruffle his hair affectionately.

"Even if I'm not 'a real boy'," Roy mimicked Dick's voice and the bird frowned, "I'm still taller than you."

Dick pouted as he slid his glasses on, concealing his blue eyes once more.

"Come on," he said turning and walking towards the door he'd come through, "Wally wants to play video games with us and I bet I can beat him three times in a row."

"Knowing Wally, even if he tried to cheat with his powers, he'd still lose to you."

Roy smiled, it was good to not be alone, and he was glad Robin had come at the right time; he needed something normal right now. Roy followed the bird and they left the room.

'_It's good to have a family.'_

* * *

**(A/N) Thought I had posted this a while ago, and only realized I hadn't when someone reviewed...**

**That was the final installment of _'Screen'_, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.**

**Please review!**


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